


Meet Me In Outer Space

by lizzicleromance



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Zombies, Angsty backstories, Best Friends, Birthday, Birthday Fluff, Birthday Party, Drinking Games, Eventual Smut, F/M, Family Fluff, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, GoodGuy!Merle, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Surprise Party
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-05
Updated: 2014-06-05
Packaged: 2018-02-03 12:30:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1744685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizzicleromance/pseuds/lizzicleromance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Glenn's friends throw him a surprise party, and it turns into a night that he will certainly never forget.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet Me In Outer Space

**Author's Note:**

  * For [doctorkaitlyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctorkaitlyn/gifts).



> The title of the story is from "Stellar" by Incubus. <3  
> It may not make much sense, but the lyrics describe Daryl and Glenn's relationship perfectly, hence why I chose it. 
> 
> Also, this is dedicated to my lovely Kaitlyn. Happy birthday, my dearest one! :D

Glenn was positively exhausted. 

Despite it being his birthday, his boss had kept him at the diner long after his shift was scheduled to be over. His eight hour day turned into a twelve hour day out of nowhere, which was great, considering it earned him some much needed overtime, but still. It was his fucking birthday, and he wasn’t too particularly happy about having to work a double on his birthday.  
To make up for it, Glenn’s boss gave him the next two days off, but it still managed to ruin whatever hope he did have of possibly going out and doing anything fun tonight. 

It wasn’t really like he had plans, anyway. 

His friends hadn’t really made too much of a fuss about the occasion, but Glenn wasn’t really too concerned about it. He had a frozen pizza and a six pack of PBR in his fridge waiting for him back home, and he was a little bit too excited about getting into the shower and popping one of those bottles open and playing Call of Duty until he passed out. 

Glenn actually cracked a full blown smile at the thought, and was all smiles the rest of his way home. He had gotten rather used to being alone, considering the year hadn’t been too kind to his closest circle of friends. They had each endured a specific hardship that sort of separated the group for awhile, but Glenn had faith that eventually, they would all be able to gather and be a family again, if even for a little while. He was so busy pulling back to back 12 hour shifts at the diner that he really didn’t have much time to check up on them, and for this, he felt incredibly guilty. 

It’s for that very reason that he didn’t feel too bad that the only ‘happy birthday’ texts he received was from Andrea and Maggie. There was still two hours left of his birthday, and he was saving his one birthday wish on something special. 

It was simple really. The only thing that Glenn wanted for his birthday, was to hear from his very best friend, Daryl, before the night was through.  
Glenn sighed deeply to himself as he trudged up the stairs to his apartment, trying his hardest to repress all thoughts of Daryl Dixon out of his mind. It had been a little over six months since he had last seen Daryl, and the time apart from him never got any easier. They had gone from next to inseparable, to having very little, if any contact whatsoever. Glenn could feel the void in his heart grow larger with every Daryl-less day that passed, but there was nothing he could do about it. Daryl was out of his reach, and that was all there was to it. 

Glenn was so wrapped up in his thoughts, that he ran smack into his neighbor, Dale right outside of his apartment.

“Dale! Shit, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

The older man was full of light-hearted laughter as he took in the panicked look on Glenn’s face. “Right as rain, Glenn. Right as rain. You look a little perplexed, there. Penny for your thoughts, son?”

Glenn smiled at Dale’s words, but simply shook his head. He pulled the keys out of his pocket, and fumbled with them for a brief moment, before replying, “No, I’m fine. Promise. Thanks though.”

“I see,” Dale replied, gazing skeptically at the young Asian. They had known each other long enough, that by now, Dale knew when Glenn was hiding the fact that something was bothering him. 

Still though, Dale had also learned that Glenn couldn’t be pushed, so he respected the fact that the younger man didn’t want to talk about whatever it was that was bothering him. 

“That boss of yours make you stay late again?”

“Yeah,” Glenn nodded, grateful that the conversation had swayed away from longing to have Daryl back in his life, to work. “It’s cool though, I could use the overtime. He gave me the next two days off as a consolation prize, so I guess it could be worse,” Glenn shrugged, giving the older man a smile. 

“Well, congrats on that. I’m on my way out to grab a pack of smokes, I’ll see you ’round, Glenn,” Dale replied hurriedly, which struck Glenn as rather odd. Whenever he would run into Dale like this, he usually  
couldn’t get the older man to shut up, but tonight, this didn’t seem to be the case.

“Alright... be careful out there,” Glenn replied finally, giving the older man a smile despite his skepticism about Dale’s sudden change in demeanor. He was too tired to question it, so he decided to just let it go. 

“Have a good night, Dale.”

“You too, son,” Dale replied, patting Glenn on the shoulder, before hurriedly making his way down the hallway and out of sight. 

The interaction seemed a bit strange to him, but Glenn shrugged it off, considering his neighbor was indeed a bit strange. 

Glenn sauntered in to his apartment, grateful to finally be able to kick his shoes off and peel some of the grungy layers of his clothing off. He fell face first into the secondhand couch, eliciting a moan of sheer happiness as he felt himself relax for the first time all day.

“Rough day?”

The voice caused Glenn to nearly jump out of his skin, as he lifted his head up to meet face to face with that famous shade of blue eyes that he would recognize anywhere. 

“Merle! Hi,” Glenn squeaked out breathlessly, his heart beating rather quickly from being startled just a moment ago by his roommate. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were home.”

Merle laughed out rather loudly at Glenn’s reply. 

“Not sure why you’re always apoligizin’, but yeah, I’m home. Not for much longer, though.”

“Oh yeah?” Glenn asked, as he situated himself so that he was sitting properly on the couch. 

“Yeah. Daryl’s in town, I’m gonna go meet up with him for a drink or two,” the older Dixon replied, which caused Glenn’s heart to quite literally come to a screeching halt. 

“D-Daryl? He’s home?” Glenn managed to squeak out, his voice no more than a whisper. “I mean, he’s back?”

“Yeah... but not for too long. I’d invite ya to come with, but I haven’t seen him in months, either. A lot’s happened, and I need to catch up and spend some quality time with my baby brother alone, y’know?” 

Glenn nodded, smiling despite the twist of emotions he felt brewing deep inside of him. 

“Yeah, of course. Go have fun with your brother, I’m just gonna hang out around here. I’ll probably be dead asleep in ten minutes, anyway,” Glenn smiled, though he refused to make eye contact with the older Dixon. 

Merle could tell that he shouldn’t have mentioned Daryl being back in town to Glenn, but it had to be done. The name slip was going to pay off big later; or else, he was hoping that it would. For now, Merle needed to continue planting the seed for what was to come later on tonight, so he put on that famous Dixon smile, and tried to pretend that he had nothing hiding up his sleeve. 

“I kinda attacked that six pack you had in there, but don’t worry, I replaced it. Should be nice and cold in the fridge, waitin’ for ya,” Merle said, leaning over to ruffle up Glenn’s slightly greasy hair. “The rule is, though, you can’t have any ’til you’ve gone and had yourself a shower.” 

Glenn laughed, of course the beer would come with a price. 

“That’s an enticing offer, Merle. Thanks,” Glenn replied, still trying to give his best smile at the older man, who was watching him intently. 

“I’m serious, boy. Go, get your ass in the shower, it’ll make you feel better. I’m not leavin’ til you do,” Merle barked out, as he relaxed onto the big recliner that was facing the couch where Glenn was sitting. 

Glenn watched as Merle sunk himself deeper into the chair, getting himself nice and comfortable. He even went so much as to kick the feet of the recliner up, for emphasis, as Glenn finally got the hint that he should do as Merle suggested, and got up from the couch. 

“Alright, alright. If I must,” the younger man sighed out, as he began walking toward the hallway that would take him to the bathroom. 

“Oh um, Merle?”

The older Dixon looked up to make eye contact with Glenn. 

“Yeah?”

Glenn kept eye contact with the older Dixon for what felt like forever, before he broke into a sentimental smile, and sighed. 

“Say hi to Daryl for me.”

With those words, Glenn quickly disappeared out of sight. Merle felt his heart begin to twist with guilt, but he knew that what he had planned would more than make up for this in the end. He waited until he heard the shower turn on, before quickly snapping into action. 

Merle quickly exited the apartment and crossed the hallway to knock on Dale’s door. As the door opened, he broke into a wicked grin at the face who greeted him, and spoke two simple words. 

“It’s time.”

~~~~~~~

Glenn decided that for once, he was going to take his dear, sweet time in the shower. He spent a good five minutes just allowing the hot water to beat down his back, gripping onto the shower wall in front of him for support. He felt most of his worries disappear down the drain, though his heart was still remained rather heavy, like it had since hearing the news of the younger Dixon brother being back in town. 

While Glenn understood that it was important for Merle to hang out with Daryl alone, it still hurt him quite a bit that Daryl was not only back in town (on his birthday, no less), but Daryl hadn’t bothered to try to get in touch with him at all, all day. 

He could handle Daryl forgetting about his birthday, that much wasn’t important to him. What was important, was that Daryl was apparently back home, but hadn’t made even the slightest effort to try to make plans to see him. 

It was only when the water turned cold that Glenn was able to snap out of his thoughts. He quickly finished up in the shower, trying everything he could to ignore the heavy weight of his heart as he towel dried himself off. 

Since Merle would undoubtedly be gone by this time, he had half a mind to wander through the small apartment with just a towel around his waist; a luxury he seldomly had considering he always lived with someone else. He had forgotten to grab clothes from his bedroom anyway, and besides, and he was rather thirsty. 

Since the apartment would be empty, surely he could get dressed after he went and grabbed himself a beer... 

“Fuck it,” he shrugged, as he stepped out into the dark hallway. With only the light from the bathroom guiding him, he made his way to the end of the hallway, and flicked on the lights-

**_“SURPRISE!”_ **

The noise that Glenn let out could only be described as a cross between a yelp and a scream as he saw all of his favorite faces grinning widely back at him. 

“Holy shit, you guys scared the piss out of me!” Glenn exclaimed, holding a shaking hand to his chest. His mouth literally hung open as he took in everything that was happening; his best friends were all here, hanging out amongst the now-elaborately decorated living room. 

A giant ‘Happy Birthday’ banner hung from the ceiling, amongst a mass of streamers and balloons. Glenn was beyond happy to see that Lori and Rick were in attendance, as well as the newly engaged Shane and Maggie. Dale and Carol were there, looking rather cozy with one another, which caused Glenn’s smile to grow even wider. 

Next to them was Merle, who was hanging onto his girlfriend, Andrea, and just when Glenn thought it wasn’t possible for his smile to get even bigger, his eyes fell upon the one and only Daryl Dixon, holding a bottle of beer that had a ‘Happy birthday’ balloon tied around it. 

He felt the ability to breathe become all the more difficult as he realized just how even more breathtaking Daryl had become, looking much leaner than before, much more _muscular_ than before. Glenn had been in love with Daryl from afar for so many years, but he never once dared to act upon his feelings. Glenn was always far too afraid to ruin the special friendship that they had, but with Daryl here, back in the same room as him, breathing the same air as him, he knew that it wasn’t going to be possible to keep how he felt for the younger Dixon a secret from him for much longer. 

“How the fuck did all of this happen?” Glenn asked, deciding to blame his inability to form coherent sentences on his shocked demeanor from the best birthday surprise he has ever gotten in his life. 

“We were all waiting next door,” Carol replied, smiling happily. 

“We had wanted to do something special for your birthday, but Merle informed us that you more than likely had to work all day, and sure enough, you did,” Maggie continued, clearing her throat as she looked anywhere but at Glenn. “We figured you would be bummed out about it, so we threw this little party together to cheer you up. Merle gave the word when you hopped in the shower- and, may I just say, you’re still really naked-”

“-Shit!” Glenn exclaimed, covering up his exposed chest as he silently prayed that the towel remained wrapped tightly around his waist as everyone burst into laughter. They were used to this sort of behavior from Glenn, considering he was always one to get embarrassed rather quickly, over the simplest of things. It only made sense that Glenn would stumble out of the shower and into a room full of his closest friends in only a towel; that was the kind of luck that he had. 

“I’m gonna, uh, you know. I’ll be right back,” the young Asian murmured quickly, trying to act calm and collected as he carefully ducked away from the living room; earning whistles and cat calls from his friends as he disappeared from the room. 

Glenn scurried off into his bedroom, shedding the towel immediately upon shutting the door behind him. He pulled on the first pair of clean boxers that he could find, as well as a tight fitting Batman t-shirt; his favorite. He thanked whatever higher power there was that he had done laundry before he left for work that day, and pulled on his favorite pair of tight fitting dark denim jeans to complete his outfit. 

He sauntered back into the bathroom to fix his hair, throwing some gel in it before very quickly blow-drying it. He knew that his guests wouldn’t mind him taking the few extra minutes to do so; besides, _Daryl_ was out there. Glenn couldn’t have his hair drying flat and un-voluminous atop his head, he needed for it to look amazing. 

After this was finished, he quickly brushed his teeth, before deciding that this was as good as it was going to get, and headed back out to the party. 

Upon stepping back out into the living room, Glenn was met with more whistles, cat calls, and a very enthusiastic round of applause from his party guests and best friends. 

He was swarmed immediately by Lori and Carol, who wrapped him up in a gigantic hug, gushing over ‘how adorable he looked’ and ‘is he really only 23?’. Dale and Rick had stepped up to ‘rescue’ Glenn from the two women, who were still busily fussing over him, to which Glenn was only slightly grateful for. They spoke for a few minutes, before Maggie kindly interrupted them, with Shane in tow. 

Glenn was so happy to see that the gorgeous brunette was all smiles as she proudly flaunted the gigantic diamond ring on her finger that Shane had given to her just a few weeks ago on their anniversary. After speaking with and congratulating the two of them, he nearly crashed directly into Merle, who was waiting patiently for him to finish mingling with the other guests. 

“So glad you decided to join us, Princess,” Merle teased him, wrapping an arm around his roommate. “I see you got all dolled up there... any particular reason?”

Glenn immediately felt all of the blood rush to his cheeks as he turned redder than a tomato at Merle’s accusation. 

“What? _No!_ ” Glenn immediately countered, blushing like a virgin on her wedding night as Merle continued to smirk at him. “I don’t know why you’d even think that, I mean, it's just jeans and a t-shirt-”

Merle suddenly burst into laughter, and caused Glenn’s words to come to an abrupt halt. 

“Ah, relax Glenn. Ya know I just like givin’ ya a hard time,” Merle cut him off, wrapping an arm around his roommate’s shoulders. “Sorry I didn’t give ya much of a heads up, but my little blondie here would have kicked my ass if I even so much as hinted at there being a surprise,” Merle explained, to which the ‘little blondie’ that he was referring to appeared at his side. 

“Damn right, I would have. Happy birthday, cutie pie!” Andrea grinned brightly at the birthday boy, before wrapping him in a bone crushing hug. 

“Thanks so much, Andi. I seriously can’t believe you guys did all this. Thank you all so much,” Glenn breathed out once Andrea let go of him, almost in disbelief that his friends had gone through such lengths to do something so special for him. 

It wasn’t by any means the first time they had celebrated his birthday with him; in fact, six of his birthdays have now come and gone since Glenn had arrived in Atlanta, and each of them had been pretty fantastic, all thanks to the people in this room. He was foolish to think they could have forgotten, or that this year would be any different. 

“Well, you know we could all use some fun in our lives. ’Sides, you deserve it,” Merle shrugged, as he gave a knowing look at Andrea, to which she nodded in immediate understanding. 

“Yeah, what he said. We- uh, we’re gonna go talk to, um, Shane and Maggie for a bit. See ya in just a bit, Glennie,” Andrea said quickly, pinching Glenn’s cheek. She then put an arm around the older Dixon brother and began leading him away from his roommate, therefore leaving Glenn alone for the first time since he rejoined the party.

“Happy birthday, Glenn,” he heard a voice say from behind him, and immediately, Glenn felt a shiver tremble up his spine, and through every single vein in his body. 

“Holy shit, Daryl,” Glenn sighed out, before turning around to make eye contact with the man that he hadn’t seen in far too long. 

As they made eye contact, Glenn realized that it felt more like years since he had last looked into those eyes, and suddenly, it felt as if Daryl had never left. Old feelings were immediately ignited as Daryl smiled at him like that; feelings that Glenn had tried so hard to suppress because Daryl was his _best friend_. 

He had fallen flat on his face for the younger Dixon so many years ago, and as the pair grew closer, it became all the more harder to keep those feelings at bay. It was when Daryl disappeared all those months ago that those feelings became more apparent than ever. Glenn felt like Daryl had taken a part of his heart with him when he left, and in its place was an immense void that ached a little bit more than it should have.

But right now, not one of those things mattered. Not the ache in his heart, or the time they had lost, because right now, Daryl was here, right in front of him. Right now, Daryl Dixon was staring deeply within his eyes again, smiling that gorgeous smile of his that made Glenn feel like he was home again. 

“Dude, come the fuck here, I’ve missed the hell out of you,” Glenn spoke finally, breaking the silence as the pair broke into light-hearted laughter as the older of the two wrapped those (even more) muscular arms around his smaller frame, holding onto him as tightly as he could. 

“I’ve missed you, too,” Daryl replied, sighing happily as he continued to hold on to his best friend. They remained like that, for what felt like hours; neither man wanting to break apart until Daryl realized everyone was staring at them. 

Daryl broke apart suddenly at that realization, quickly snapping back to reality as he proudly presented the gift that he had gotten for Glenn. 

“I uh, got you this,” he said shyly, blushing the slightest bit as Glenn committed this very moment to memory, wanting to hold on to it for as long as he could. 

“Holy shit, it’s a Batman beer holding mechanism,” Glenn spoke with a wide grin, as he admired the gorgeous gift that Daryl was holding out for him to take. 

“You’re God damned right, it is,” Daryl replied, to which Glenn couldn’t help but wholeheartedly agree. 

It was literally the greatest thing that Glenn had ever seen, considering his favorite person looked just so fucking adorable holding onto that bottle of beer, which was sitting in the Batman koozie, which was strapped to that gigantic balloon. Glenn admired the little contraption, realizing that Daryl had strategically tied the balloon to the bottom of the Batman koozie so no matter how many beers or drinks Glenn wanted to have, he could swap them in and out of the koozie and still have the balloon attached to it. 

“This is literally the greatest present ever. Thank you so much, Daryl,” Glenn beamed up at the older man, as he wrapped his best friend in yet another bone crushing embrace. “I’m so fucking glad you’re here, you have no idea,” Glenn murmured, shutting his eyes briefly as he savored the feeling of being back in Daryl’s arms again. 

“Me too,” Daryl replied, squeezing him back just as tightly, as if for emphasis. 

“Me three!” a voice boomed out next to them, causing the two of them to abruptly break apart from one another. 

“ _Merle_ -” Daryl argued, but his big brother had already snatched Glenn away from him. 

“Now Glenn, I know you didn’t actually think that I was gonna run off to the bar without first, wishin’ you a happy birthday, and second, flaunt the fact that the second most handsome Dixon brother was back in town, and not invite you along to come hang out with us... right?” 

Merle earned a playful punch in his gut from the ‘second most handsome Dixon brother’, and Glenn could only watch the two of them with a vibrant smile on his face. The gleam in Merle’s eye was back now that Daryl was back, and Glenn was having a tough time recalling a time when he was happier than he was at this moment right now, surrounded by the Dixon brothers, as well as the rest of his wonderful friends.

“Well, no, but it sure seemed like it earlier,” Glenn replied to Merle’s previous question, as both Dixons wrapped an arm simultaneously around Glenn’s smaller form. 

It was certain that Glenn may have romantic feelings for Daryl, but he knew that his feelings for Merle were rather strong too; but in a much more brotherly way. Merle and Daryl had looked out for Glenn ever since they met him those six years ago. They were the first real friends that Glenn had ever had, and they in turn introduced Glenn to everyone else, and now here they were. They were all together again, and despite everything they had been through, everyone seemed happier than he had seen them in such a long time, and that was the only thing that Glenn truly wanted. 

“I’m so fucking glad you guys are all here. This is seriously the best birthday ever,” Glenn spoke his thoughts aloud, needing for everyone around him to know how truly grateful he was that they had come out to celebrate with him. 

“Well, it’s only just beginning, and if I remember correctly, you’re off for the next two days. That means, tonight, we fuckin’ party,” Merle reiterated, as the sheriff cleared his throat from behind them. 

“That’s all fine and all, but let’s not forget that some of us are old, and can’t really hang like we used to,” Rick tried to reason, but only earned rather enthusiastic jeers and groans from everyone for his efforts. 

“Speak for yourself,” Lori teased, holding her glass of wine with her pinky up as she clinked her glass with Carol’s. 

“Yeah Rick,” Carol chimed in, which earned a laugh from everyone in the room. Glenn felt his heart become a million times lighter than it had been in a really long time. He took the time to capture every one of his friends just as they were in that moment; bright, vibrant, and exuberantly happy, which is quite the contrast to the last time all of them had been gathered like this. 

Tonight’s party may be in honor of Glenn’s birthday, but he knew deep down that tonight was more of a celebration for their little family to come together to actually _celebrate_ something for once. They had all been put through so much over the past year, and they each deserved a night to simply relax and be _happy_ for once. 

While Maggie and Shane’s engagement was the only positive thing that had happened in their group as of late, Maggie knew that one of the main reasons for the proposal was because Shane was being sent off to Iraq in just a few months. Though the engagement was something that Maggie had always wanted, she refused to have an engagement party, and told Shane that she would marry him the moment he came back home to her once he was done with his tour overseas. It was definitely a difficult time for both of them, considering this was supposed to be one of the happiest times of their relationship. It was clear that Maggie was already feeling the withdrawls from being away from Shane beginning to set in, and she really had no clue how she was going to handle it whenever Shane actually did get deployed. 

Rick was feeling the withdrawl from Shane’s impending deployment as well, considering he had to take a leave of absence from the police force in order to do so. Shane was not only his best friend and right hand man, but he was also Rick’s partner. They worked alongside each other for almost ten years, from the beginning of their careers as rookies in the Academy. They had worked up the ranks together, and it was a partnership that couldn’t be touched. Shane had never been more proud of his brother when Rick became the town’s sheriff, and vice versa when Shane became his deputy. 

Rick felt like he was losing his best friend, which was hard enough on the sheriff. Not only was he struggling to come to terms with the fact that his best friend, partner, and brother was being shipped off to go fight in a seemingly never-ending war, Rick and Lori were still struggling to come to terms with a very painful miscarriage that the couple had endured just a few short months ago. Lori of course became an emotional wreck when she lost their little girl, but the emotional turmoil had especially taken a toll on the good sheriff. You could see it in his eyes that the past few months had been extra hard on him, though he did everything he could to be strong for his wife, son, best friend, and his best friend’s fiancee. 

Tonight, however, Rick, Lori, Shane, and Maggie all seemed to be in the very best of spirits, and Glenn couldn’t help but to take a great sense of pride in how wonderful it felt to see the four of them so bright and cheery. 

As if their stories weren’t tragic enough, Carol’s story was just as painful. After nearly two years of a very expensive and emotionally draining divorce/custody battle from her (thankfully) ex-husband, Ed, Carol hoped that her struggle was finally over. It had been a never-ending nightmare for not only Carol to endure, but also for their only daughter, Sophia. Ed had tried to take sole custody of their little girl, and the months that followed the divorce of the seemingly never-ending custody battle had driven Carol to her absolute breaking point. 

When the court had finally ruled in her favor, her ex, Ed, went on a rampage and put Dale in the hospital with a few broken ribs and a broken arm. 

Ed claimed that Carol had been cheating on him with Dale for months leading up to the divorce, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Dale  
had valiantly stepped up and took Carol and Sophia in when Carol first filed for divorce, because they had no place else to go, and he was sick of seeing someone as sweet as Carol struggle with both the physical and emotional abuse like she had been. 

Ed had hired Phillip Blake, who happened to be one of the most crooked lawyers in the entire state of Georgia to represent him, and he exploited the fact that Dale had taken Carol and Sophia in, and it actually almost caused Ed to have the upper hand and nearly resulted in the abusive Ed Pelissier gaining not only custody of Sophia, but earning him alimony from Carol, as well. 

Andrea was the one who represented both Carol and Dale in their seemingly neverending battles with Ed and Phillip ‘The Governor’ Blake. Phillip hadn’t made the battle easy on Andrea, but he was no match for her resiliency. If there’s one thing about the blonde attorney, it’s that when she’s passionate about something, she will stop at nothing until she gets it. The only family that Andrea has is her sister, Amy, and the extended family that she found in Dale, and in Carol. She pulled out all the stops until she exposed Ed for the drunken abuser that he was, and he was sentenced to 5-15 years in prison for the assault on Dale. 

Though the court had ruled in all of their favors, it still somehow managed to leave a bittersweet, hollow feeling deep within Andrea’s chest. 

Prior to the Ed fiasco, Andrea had already made the decision to switch from practicing criminal law to family law, because criminal law was just a bit too difficult for her to handle. It had been a pretty wise decision, and she had been happy with the transition. Andrea had been pretty good at keeping both her work and personal lives separate; until the battle with Ed Pelissier and the Governor nearly took over her life. 

The assault on Dale had hit her hard, considering the older man was like a father to her. Her relationship with Carol was very special to her, considering Carol was just some random woman that she met by chance in a supermarket several years ago. Andrea had run into Carol by accident; literally collided right into her and wound up knocking her down. Andrea knew immediately that Carol had been abused by the way that she reacted to the fall; putting her arms up over her head in a defensive stance as she cried out for Andrea that ‘she was sorry, and not to hurt her again.’ 

From that moment, their paths were forever intertwined. Andrea did everything she could to somehow remain in Carol’s life, showing up outside of Sophia’s school to talk to her, showing up at the grocery store from time to time, and at Carol’s job at the library, all just to make sure that she was okay. Dale knew what Carol meant to Andrea, and he tried to help out as much as he could, but Carol was wary of him, because she was so frightened of her husband. 

As time went by, Carol began to open up to Andrea, slowly letting the blonde into her life. Andrea did everything she could to convince Carol to go to a shelter, but the sweet soul had refused, on account of Sophia. Andrea in turn, orchestrated everything that happened from that point on, arranging for Carol and Sophia to stay with Dale, once she filed for divorce from her abusive husband. 

Since then, not only had Dale had been hospitalized, but Sophia had been kidnapped. Hurting Dale wasn’t enough; Ed wanted Carol to suffer, and taking her little girl away from her was the surefire way to do just that. What Ed didn’t count on, was that Shane and Rick were the best police officers on the force, and they had teamed up with Daryl, Merle, and Glenn, who had dropped everything in their lives to volunteer their time to finding the little girl. They orchestrated a search effort that had Sophia back in her mother’s arms within hours of being taken from her. 

It was a huge win to get Sophia back, and her kidnapping added another 15 years-life to the sentence that Ed was already serving. Though Andrea knew that Sophia and Carol were safe, and Dale’s injuries would heal, she still felt completely responsible for everything that had happened to them. She had trouble sleeping, and began to question everything that she stood for. She developed a dependency to the medications that her doctor had prescribed to her, and became a hollow shell of her previously bright, vibrant self. Andrea nearly gave up her practice because it all became too much for her to handle, but Merle was there for her every step of the way. 

In time, the older Dixon helped her see that she had actually saved Carol and Sophia away from any further trauma and abuse, and now that Ed was serving a possible life sentence in prison, Carol and Sophia could finally be happy, and thanks to her selfless efforts, they could all finally move on from everything and begin the next part of their lives. 

As for Merle, he and Daryl had lost their mom to a long battle with cancer earlier in the year. It was hard for Merle, of course, but it was Daryl that had taken their mother’s death especially hard. Glenn was there for him, as much as Daryl would let him be, but then suddenly, Daryl was gone. He left a letter explaining to Merle and to Glenn that he needed a break from everyone and everything, and for them not to worry about him. He explained that he would be back eventually, whenever he got his mind right. 

Glenn didn’t know where it was that Daryl had gone off to, he just knew that whenever Daryl got into that super reclusive state that he sometimes wandered off in to, that the younger Dixon simply needed to be left alone, so Glenn didn’t bother to try to find him, or convince him to stay. Part of him truly regretted that decision, but rationalizing with a Dixon was something he had learned was next to impossible, so he simply let Daryl be. 

When Daryl left, Merle made the decision to move out of the country and into the city, and found the apartment that he and Glenn are currently living in, so that he could be closer to Andrea. Merle knew that Glenn had been struggling for far too long, living with shitty roommates and even shittier apartments that always came with absurdly high monthly living expenses. He offered the extra bedroom in the apartment to Glenn, for a mere $300 a month, with all added expenses included. 

The older Dixon refused to let Glenn pay a penny more for any of the bills or the utilities, though Glenn did try to make up for his lack of bill expenditures by making sure there was always food in the cabinets and beer in the fridge, along with a multitude of free breakfast platters with extra bacon from the diner; Merle’s favorite. 

The people that were gathered in Merle and Glenn’s apartment were an eclectic group of people, but they were the best people that Glenn Rhee had ever met. They had each been there for him at some point over the last few years of his life, and vice versa. They saw Glenn’s struggle, and they each did their part in helping him feel not so alone during a time when he needed a friend the most. These people were his family, and they were the only family that Glenn knew he would ever need. 

His own family had turned their backs on him the moment he came out to them, claiming that ‘no son of theirs could ever be a queer.’ He was cut off from his inheritance, but he had a full scholarship to the University of Georgia, so he moved down to Atlanta for college once he graduated high school a little over six years ago. He had nothing to his name other than a positive attitude and a beat up Honda Civic. He had a backpack in the passenger seat that contained all of his belongings, which consisted of some clothes and some video games, his Playstation 2, and that was about it. 

He met Daryl shortly after he got to Atlanta, when his car broke down on the side of the road. Daryl happened to be driving by and stopped to see if Glenn needed any help, and the rest was history. 

“Glenn? You alright?”

Glenn felt a gentle hand nudging him, and he instantly snapped out of the little recollective trance that he had just wandered off in to. He was met with the bright blue eyes of Daryl Dixon, and immediately, he felt like for the first time in a very long time, that everything was finally going to be okay, for all of them. 

“Of course,” Glenn replied, gifting Daryl with the very sweetest of smiles. “I was just thinking about how grateful I am that my car killed out on me back when I first came to Atlanta. That’s all.”

The smile that Daryl gave him in return was quite literally the most amazing gift that Glenn had ever received in his entire life. 

“Glenn, I...” Daryl began, before their moment was interrupted by Shane, who got in the middle of the two, and carelessly slung an arm around either of their shoulders. 

“Not to ruin the moment, but I’m here to inform you of a public service announcement,” Shane drawled out in that perfect southern accent of his. 

“Is that so?” Daryl asked, as both he and Glenn shared an amused grin at their slightly drunk friend. 

“Indeed. I come here to inform you that the sheriff has declared that it’s time for shots, and I’m here to see that everyone is in full compliance of his direct order.” 

Glenn and Daryl both laughed out in unison at the ‘direct order’. “I thought you said something just now about not being able to hang like you used to?” Daryl replied teasingly at Rick, who had come over to join their conversation. 

“Hey now, I was merely trying to state earlier that we’ve got Carl and Sophia sleeping over next door with Beth and Amy. They were kind enough to watch them for us tonight, so us grown-ups could come out and play; and dammit, we’re gonna play. Seeing as it’s almost midnight, can we please get the party started before we older folk turn into pumpkins?”

“Fair enough,” Glenn replied, as he made eye contact with Daryl, who seemingly knew what it was that he had in mind.

“Then I guess we better do as the sheriff says and get the party started,” Daryl mused, putting an arm around Glenn. “C’mon, Glenn. Before it’s time for shots, we need more beer.” 

Glenn could only look up at the younger Dixon, and smile as he led him off into the kitchen. 

“Daryl, I-” Glenn began to say, but Daryl immediately shut him up by capturing Glenn’s lips in an absolutely mouth-watering kiss. Glenn moaned out in surprise as their lips connected, immediately melting into Daryl as the older of the two pinned him up against the counter.

“We’ve got a lot of time to make up for, and I’m not just talking about the time I’ve been gone,” Daryl spoke in between kisses, as Glenn pulled Daryl’s body as close against his own as he could. Daryl’s tongue was in Glenn’s mouth within seconds, and it was quite simply the most intense, amazing moment of Glenn’s entire life as they finally allowed the other to see just how deeply they felt for one another. 

After a few moments of blissful making out, Daryl leaned forward to rest his forehead against Glenn’s, as his hands came up to cup either side of Glenn’s face. 

“I just wanted you to know that I’m not going anywhere, not for a very long time,” Daryl spoke softly, as Glenn felt his heart nearly burst from so much happiness. 

Those words meant more to Glenn than he could ever begin to express with words, so he decided against even trying. He simply leaned forward to press his lips to Daryl’s once more; kissing the older man with everything that he had, and hoping to convey everything that he was feeling through this far from simple kiss. 

“Good,” Glenn replied finally, as Daryl leaned in to kiss him once more; this one short and sweet, before regretfully pulling away. 

“We’ll continue this later, I promise,” Daryl said, as he reached into the fridge and grabbed two new beers, one for himself and one for Glenn. 

“I can’t wait,” Glenn replied, as Daryl leaned in for one last kiss before they went back to join the others. Glenn moaned out slightly; it was impossible not to, and couldn’t help but to wrap his arms around Daryl’s shoulders so that he could pull Daryl in closer, deepening the kiss as much as he could. Daryl growled out in appreciation, and Glenn all but lost his mind at how fucking _sexy_ it sounded. Glenn’s tongue was in Daryl’s mouth within seconds, and before he knew it, Daryl had lifted Glenn up onto the counter, so that his legs were dangling off of the edge. Daryl was within those legs within seconds, and Glenn wasted absolutely no time in wrapping his legs around Daryl, pulling him in as close as he could. 

Glenn simply couldn’t help himself. He had been waiting six whole years for this moment to happen, and he wasn’t about to waste such an amazing opportunity. 

A clicking sound was the only thing that could be heard over the soft mewling sounds from Glenn, and the ultra sexy gutteral groans that were coming out of Daryl, but neither were too concerned to care about where that noise had come from. 

“Well if that ain’t just the sweetest damn thing I ever saw,” a voice said then, and immediately, the pair broke apart, and came face to face with the older Dixon brother, who held a Polaroid camera in his hands, and wore a wide, smug grin on his face.

“ _Merle_ -” 

“Say cheese,” the older Dixon teased, as he snapped another photo of the two, making sure to capture them in all of their post-first kiss splendor, with their flushed faces, messed up hair, and kiss-swollen lips. 

Daryl went from glaring at his brother, to simply smirking at him, before leaning in to kiss Glenn once again; deeply and passionately. “May as well give ’em something worth rememberin’,” Daryl replied amusedly, holding on to the side of Glenn’s face as he continued to grin up at him.

Glenn could do nothing but smile up at his favorite face in the world, and kiss him again.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for giving the characters such super angsty backstories. I felt it was necessary to give them some sort of definition, but if it seemed out of place, I do apologize. 
> 
> There will be a part II that goes further into their night... I've got some pretty spectacular things planned for the occasion, and I'm pretty sure if you liked the ending to part I, you won't want to miss it. Stay tuned :))


End file.
